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Type Bachelor's Thesis
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Swiss Official Development Assistance and its Sustainability Footprint: An Examination of the Water and Sanitation Sector in Africa
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Jérôme Gretener
Supervisors
  • Jiani Zheng
  • Marc Chesney
Language
  • English
Institution University of Zurich
Faculty Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics
Date 2021
Abstract Text Official Development Assistance (ODA) is government provided aid that aims to enable economic development and welfare in the receiving developing countries. Amongst the different sources of financing for development aid, ODA remains the “gold standard”. Financing for development can also be provided in the form of resource flows other than ODA, for example by foreign direct investment (FDI), personal remittances or private grants. The water and sanitation sector is of central importance as it is tightly connected to many of the major challenges that developing countries are facing, for example in health care or in agriculture. Billions of people, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, remain without access to basic sanitation and drinking water services. ODA projects concerning the water and sanitation sector in Africa aim to ameliorate the situation. In this thesis, two Swiss ODA projects focussing on the water and sanitation sector in Tanzania and in Mozambique were summarised, and by comparison with existing literature their sustainability footprint was assessed. In general, good governance, transparency, accountability, as well as motivation, training and education of locals have the ability to lead to sustainable outcomes. While ODA is not the only source of developmental aid, it is certainly the most documented one. One of the core challenges of development cooperation remains consistent and standardised reporting on measures and outcomes. To achieve sustainability of investments in the future, the exchange of knowledge, know-how, local expertise and experience is crucial. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) could help to guide development cooperation into a more sustainable future.
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